Vocabulary of Mongolian origin in the Yakut and Dolgan languages (based on terms denoting objects of the natural world)

The article examines the lexicon of Mongolic origin in the Yakut and Dolgan languages on the basis of terms denoting objects of the natural world. The relevance of the study lies in the insufficient development of a comparative description of the Mongolic lexical layer in these two languages within a single thematic field. Although Mongolic borrowings have repeatedly attracted scholarly attention, Yakut and Dolgan data are most often analyzed separately, which makes it difficult to distinguish the common early layer from later or locally закрепившиеся formations. The aim of the article is to carry out a comparative analysis of Mongolic borrowings in Yakut and Dolgan using the material of nature-related vocabulary. The study is based on the most representative lexical items belonging to landscape, hydrological, meteorological, and zoonymic vocabulary. The source base includes data from Yakut and Mongolic dictionaries, as well as works on etymology and comparative-historical linguistics. The research employs comparativehistorical, etymological, semantic, and contrastive methods. The analysis shows that the Mongolic component in the vocabulary under consideration is heterogeneous and multilayered. The common Yakut-Dolgan layer is most clearly preserved in basic vocabulary related to the natural environment, where both formal and semantic correspondences can be observed. At the same time, Yakut retains a broader range of Mongolic borrowings that do not always have equally clear parallels in the available Dolgan material. The main types of semantic correlation identified in the study include preservation of the original meaning, narrowing or specification of meaning, and transfer of a name to a new denotatum under different ecological conditions. It is demonstrated that the absence of numerous direct Yakut-Dolgan correspondences does not indicate the weakness of the Mongolic component; rather, it reflects the different chronology and uneven character of borrowing in the two linguistic systems. The article concludes that the Mongolic lexical layer in Yakut and Dolgan should be treated as a complex formation consisting of a common early stratum and lexical units that underwent separate phonetic and semantic development.